Michelle's NDAD Creation

Today's creation comes in from Michelle and her adorable daughter, M.  I love that they had a fun crafternoon making something new from something outgrown.  Check it out!

Hi!  I've been following your blog for a few years now, and LOVE it!  Thanks for all the inspiration!  I'm a single mother and I work full time, but I still find time to get my crafty fix!  My daughter is 12 and we've always upcycled old clothing.  Our most infamous projects include costumes and tons of dress up clothes made from old prom dresses and evening gowns.  We've made everything from sweatshirt cardigans out of clearance sweatshirts and skirts from old thrift store dress shirts.  About 5 years ago, I got my "dream come true" embroidery machine and used it to make the little project I'm sending you!  I am a pharmacy technician at Walgreens, so with my employee discount, I bought a stack of plain little tee shirts for 85 cents each.  I used my machine to make fancy edging and designs on the plain shirts - one of them was a freebie design of a cat's face - and we used colors to mimic our first cat, Lucille (who is actually a LOUIS but we didn't know that at the time, but that's another story).

My daughter had this adorable little shirt that she wore to school and wore to play in, and eventually spilled fingernail polish on the front! 

New Dress A Day - DIY - Cat T shirt - vintage - upcycle

After the fingernail polish incident, she only wore it as an undershirt until she outgrew it.  I've kept the shirt, because we both loved the design and I finally decided today I'd do something different with it!

What will Michelle and her daughter M do with this feline tee??

I had a thrift store frame that I bought for 25 cents (gotta love quarter day!) and it was one of the vintage folding ones that stands up by itself.

New Dress A Day - DIY - vintage picture frame - Goodwill

We used a LOT of Windex (those old thrift store frames can be ICKY!) and cleaned up the glass.

We trimmed the embroidery from the shirt...

New Dress A Day - DIY - vintage cat T shirt - Goodwill

...and with a little snipping and some duct tape, we came up with a piece of art work to go in her room!

New Dress A Day - DIY - vintage cat T shirt - Goodwill

So basically, I spent $1.10 (unless you include the $650 spent on the embroidery machine), and used one shirt for two projects that will last forever...or until she no longer wants pictures of cats in her room!

New Dress A Day - DIY - vintage cat T shirt - Goodwill

We are also planning on using the leftover fabric from the shirt to make her an "ABERZOMBIE" tee, but that's another project for another day!  Thanks so much, and keep up the great work!

Michelle!!  What a cute project you and your daughter came up with - I love that you repurposed that tee once and aren't finished yet!  I'm looking forward to this "Aberzombie" creation you speak of and can't wait to see how Miss M looks in it!  Thanks for sharing your amazing creativity with all of us.